Career change for doctors and dentists

What is the definition of career change?

At Medical Forum we have our own

Any outcome that results from a simple, well structured exploration and learning about career needs which gives a positive change in the way that a person feels about their working life - where it is going, how it fits in with the rest of life and how satisfying it is.

This could mean a change in hours alone - or it could mean adding new strings to the bow - or it could mean diversifying into a portfolio way of working - or it could mean a change of location or employer. Finally it could also mean a minor, moderate or radical change in the whole pathway of ones career... even leaving one major career and retraining in another.

Many people assume that career change is the latter and as a result the whole thing becomes really rather scary. However it never fails to amaze us just how many opportunities can be generated which do use much of ones previous learning and skills.

There is often a huge amount of trepidation when one finally admits to oneself that a career which one has worked so hard to get right is not delivering what one had hoped for or expected.

Prior to that admission there can be literally years if not decades of prevarication and uncertainty about whether one "is in the right career" or whether one "should leave or change".

Our first piece of advice is that almost every person goes through these thoughts at some point in their career. It is only a problem when those feelings and thoughts are causing anxiety, wasting a lot of a person's time or resulting in other ill effects impacting on life in general.

Our second piece of advice is often to say.....stop all that ping ponging about - the vacillating and the internal argy bargy and replace that by seeking a well structured, creative and holisitic and realistic way of examining where you are, how you got there, what you would like more of and how to get it.

​Our third piece of advice is that the degree of change you may need and want may not be as radical as you may first assume. So rather than make massive ill informed assumptions - we suggest that you take some positive action to gently explore and learn more about career planning in general.

If you prefer to get cracking pronto on some careers work with personalised feedback then you can join our Career Review Programme.